Live, Brooklyn electronic duo Blondes bob their heads an awful lot. Sam Haar and Zachary Steinman always seem like they’re jamming their way into an invitation to dance — and this can either make us move or give us pause. Touched, their debut EP, may showcase some painstakingly “definitive” versions of these late-night autobahn rides to nowhere. But the approach remains pretty much the same: drawing equally on experimental minimalism, Acid House, and ‘70s Kosmiche, Blondes whisper electronic ribbons and female vocal flourishes into repetitive base motifs until they blossom like synthetic Chiapets and light up the night. The result is true intelligent dance music — one that thinks before it speaks.

Last week, “Sunday Brunch with Chocolate Bobka” on Newtown Radio was home to a DJ coup d’état. I wish I could say that the Underwater Visitations team staged a veritable DJ hold-up (in the manner of Horsemouth in the film Rockers, Reggae patois and all), but the reality of the situation had nothing to do with musico-political resistance, and everything to do with scheduling conflicts. Though no omelets or mimosas went into making of this episode, Ari and I had a full plate indeed — so much so that we stretched our two-hour repast into three and a half.

Cameron Stallones of Sun Araw delivered an inspirational virtual DJ set from sunny Los Angeles, aptly entitled “Sunburn City: Heads Up High.” Over Gchat, Cameron described the mix to me as the soundtrack to a “lazer lazy day”: “it starts all dewy, and then it gets mad sunburnt.” I’m not so sure what Sunburn city is, but apparently the photo above — which Cameron provided in the way of visual accompaniment — shows all the people who are waiting in line to get there. I probably should have asked him to tell me a little more about the place when he called into the station from the side of the road — not to mention his thoughts on Jesuit philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Soviet mystic mathematician PD Ouspensky, whom he seemed intent upon discussion before the show– but we did end up having a pretty fascinating discussion on triangles, hairless dogs, and Hubble 3D.

Just when we were about to pack up for the day, G. Lucas Crane of Silent Barn, Woods, and Nonhorse fame rolled up with his mobile tape-manipulation dashboard and spilled about a hundred hand-labeled tapes onto the floor. Shortly thereafter, he dove into a hour-long mash-up of sounds as widely varied as Indian Raga, a “How to Feel Good Without Drugs” self-hypnosis cassette, and a tape he recorded while watching at home and jamming along to it on a synthesizer. The resulting performance — which you can hear at the tail end of the episode below — was frenetic enough to provoke a small seizure. But like any instance of sensory overload – listening to every FM station on the dial at once, for example — if you let the whole thing wash over you in one long continuous wave, you’ll probably end up feeling pretty blissed-out.

Todd Pendu’s massive gathering of underground musicians and artists, the NY Eye & Ear Fest, is preparing for its third installment at the newly christened Knitting Factory space in Williamsburg. Last year’s Eye and Ear Fest was held in July, and before that in December. Perhaps seeing a hole in the city’s calendar due to the dispiriting departure of the No Fun Fest, the event is set for May 22 and 23 and promises over 12 hours of music each day. But that’s only part of the attraction, which also includes a massive record fair with vendors and labels (including VR favorites like Abandon Ship and ESP Disk) selling the usual tapes and LPs alongside art prints, comics, zines and more.

It’s no small feat to keep the public’s interest over three consecutive large-scale events, although this particular festival’s audience tends to be less fickle and hype-oriented than your average Brooklyn indie rock enthusiast. Those with the stamina will be rewarded by what amounts to a nearly comprehensive overview of the current New York underground, including headlining performances from mainstays like Blank Dogs and Xeno & Oaklander along with a slew of up-and-coming acts like Effing and Hunters. One of NY Eye & Ear Fest’s greatest attractions is the sheer diversity of acts on display. No matter your taste for the subterreanean, they’ve got you covered, from dark disco – à la Pendu’s weekly dance parties at Glasslands – to sloppy, snotty rock and everything in-between.

The official NY Eye & Ear Fest site has done a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of getting you acquainted with all the music on display, offering sound samples of every group and a mixtape for each day of the fest for your perusal. Visitation Rites will be on site for the entirety of the event and will have extensive coverage in the days following. This will be the premiere underground music event of the season in New York. Don’t miss it for the world.

NY Eye & Ear Fest takes place May 22 and 23 at the Knitting Factory, Brooklyn. Tickets are on-sale now for $17/day or $30/weekend pass (less than $1.00 a band!) For further information on Todd Pendu and background on the festival please see the interviewVR head honcho Emilie Friedlander conducted with Todd Pendu for Arthur Magazine last year.(more…)

Trekking in the January sleet into the far corners of darkest Bushwick has its rewards. Last Sunday, McGregor from Chocolate Bobka and I had the pleasure of doing an hour-long guest spot on Arthur Magazine‘s new weekly emission on Brooklyn’s Newtown Radio, broadcast out of a unexpectedly cozy enclave on the fourth floor of an unmarked industrial warehouse. The subject du jour was Retro-Futuristic Utopias, so I arrived at the studio expecting to pull together a spiel on Walt Disney’s Tomorrowland Autopia, the Ecological Art movement of the late 1960s, and Douglas Trumble’s 1971 science-fiction classic Silent Running. Instead, we ended up spinning some warped 21st century psychedelia, eating cookies courtesy Arthur Radio co-host Harry Painter’s grandma, and dancing like the slow section of a slow school.(more…)

This one creeps up on you. I have yet to catch a live voyage by the two Brooklyn space cadettes who record under the name Future Shuttle, but there sure is some lovely gravitational tug-and-pull going on in this collaboration with Blondes, whose beats always drive hard towards center of the earth. And I wouldn’t ordinarily expect the whoooop of this loop to provide enough knob fodder for an entire song, but these four former Oberlin chums somehow manage to extract mile upon three-dimensional mile out if it. Are we really hearing just the same thing repeated over and over again? Each time they edge in with new frequencies, I have to do a double-take.(more…)

The first time I caught a live set by the Brooklyn electronic duo Blondes, my mind started flashing with memories of Manuel Göttsching’s disembodied head floating aimlessly atop a vortex of neon pink and purple mist during last summer’s performance of “E2-E4” at Lincoln Center. This projection–courtesy the Joshua Light Show–formed the perfect accompaniment to the pleasant, glassy-eyed monotony of a simple programmed pattern sounding a million times over–here the famous “E2-E4” riff–and Blondes’ music leans on a similar logic.(more…)